The Wheel Question...

[Michael Spiers <mikes@specnet.com>]

Started out on my trip to Vermont last Thursday with a 17" wheel & D40M2 on the
front left corner, a 15" wheel with a P4000 on the front right corner, a 15"
wheel with a P6 on the rear left corner, and a 17" wheel with a D40M2 on the
rear right corner (pretty, wasn't it Dan?)  The steering wheel had a slight
vibration and the car pulled slightly to the left, as it had since I railed my
first pothole (Borbet #1) in Harrisburg two months ago.  95 North in Philly on
Thursday, I got a few more dents & dings, found a few potholes that went almost
the whole way through the bridge.  The steering wheel promptly vibrated so it
rotated almost 90 degrees every revolution of the tires, and the car pulled
REAL hard right, to the point that if I let go of the wheel the car would
immediately swerve off the road.  When filling up in New York, I decided it
might be a good time to check the damage.  Sure enough, another nice dent in
the front left 17, and a gash in the sidewall of the D40M2, that apparently
only went thu the outer ply of the sidewall.  Drove it another 800 miles to
Vermont & then back home without incident (avoiding PA altogether.)  Got home
at 10ish Monday night. Came out early Tuesday morning late to take Ann to the
airport, front right tire is totally flat.  Grab the trusy Cheby & off I go to
BWI.  Came home & changed the flat P4000 to the other P4000 (which has a huge
welt in the sidewall, but at least it holds air.)  Two interesting things: the
flat P4000 (on the stock 15" wheel) was worn completely through the steel belts
on the outside, causing the tire to split in two, (no, I never looked at the
thing before this, I was on vacation & the hell if I was going to mess with an
Audi) explaining the loss of air.  The inside of the tire was still well above
the wear bars, as the whole wheel had been when I put it on a week ago.  A look
at the stock rim & it looks just fine, no obvious damage.  However, the
vibrations are now totally gone, as is the horrible pull, even tho the left 17
is visibly damaged worse than it ever was.  So, did I trash a stock rim?  Like
I said, looking at it, it looks fine, how do you tell other than paying someone
to spin it?  Is it possible all the damage was to the tire & not the wheel?
 One of these days I'll have my snows mounted on the stock rims, I don't want
to put a good tire on a screwed rim!  thanks to anyone who can shed light...
BTW, the skiing was awesome!

-- 
-Mike
mikes@specnet.com
mks107@psuvm.psu.edu
87 5000CS TQ - Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
84 5000S - Boulder, Colorado
90 80 - Bethesda, Maryland